During the fourth inning was listening to the game on the radio. When Posada got his hit, Sterling’s call was either “ARod rounds third, he scores” or “ARod rounds third, he’ll score” so I immediately thought the Yanks had cut the lead in half. But then a second later Sterling says “no, he’s held at third”.

Though I did not see the play, it was obvious ARod made a turn past third but was not heading home as Sterling led us to believe, so instead of calling the action as he saw it, Sterling called the play as he assumed it would be. Now, throughout the remaining Yankee half of the inning, Sterling repeated over and over that ARod would have been safe. When the inning ended with Rodriguez stranded at third, Sterling made the point that a mistake had cost the Yankees a run.

In the ninth inning I finally saw the play that ARod was held up on. It seemed the center fielder got the ball in his glove just after ARod had cut the base. Was that enough time for him to certainly score, I don’t think so. Could he have scored, yes, but a good throw could also have gotten him. So with only one out, it seemed to be the right decision. If ARod was cut down, then there were two outs.

The real mistake, of course, was Sterling telling listeners ARod had or was about to score and I think he was therefore only trying to cover up his own mistake by pouncing on that point the rest of the inning (BTW, Suzyn Waldman made not comment about it one way or the other).

But of curiosity, would Rodriguez have most likely scored had he not been held up as Sterling professed? I would like to know what really happened on the play.

Totally unprofessional, even for those who practice the wishful thinking approach. And then to use the airwaves not to fairly assess the play but to just cover up one’s tracks on a botched call is sinking even lower.

Had Sterling been describing the action properly it is my hunch he would have not talked in such absolute terms about ARod’s chances and make Rob Thompson his scape goat, which in itself is a lousy thing to do.

A-Rod is easily one of my least favorite players on my least favorite team, so he can continue to pile up as many K’s in key situations as he likes. But at least, as his comments in this article show, he’s no Tom Gl@v!ne.

[…] and the Tigers were A.L. Central champions again and A.L. finalists again. Bless those boys for avoiding extinction in the ALDS, but even armed with the best pitcher on the planet this year, they seemed ultimately doomed given […]

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